Teen Beach Moive Party

 Sienna turned four this last month. She knew exactly what she wanted for her party. 

Sienna poses the best in pictures. Sisters are ready for the party.

"Crabs" chicken salad

Yes that is a homemade fire pit. The husband went to the canyon and brought home a ton of rocks to make a pit. I of course wanted to shop and click on Amazon...that didn't happen.

Plans changed when we realized the night before it wasn't going to be dark enough to project the movie outside. So we quickly improvised and made the garage a theater room.

Everyone got snow cones during the movie

Kids were literally diving for cupcakes

Play dough ice cream Sienna picked out

Daddy's inner Kenickie coming out

That smile made the day perfect.

Invitations were done by TheIndigoStudio on Etsy. Brenda is great and will make sure your invite is what you want. 

Pictures taken by my sweet sister-in-law Aleigh Joy.


Have a fantastical day!
Alana 

Pumpkin Streusel Bread

Yes, I am the one that posted the Christmas ornament the other day...

But, I do realize it's still fall and Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away.

So here is my recipe to show that I am still enjoying fall for the time being ;)

I am a Serious fan of all things pumpkin.

Hunter apparently is too and he just didn't know it!

I really wanted to make an awesome pumpkin bread this year but every recipe seemed to have chocolate chips. 

Although I do love chocolate, I think it takes away from the awesome flavor of pumpkin.

That's when the idea of streusel popped into my head!

Thank goodness it did!

This recipe was a complete trial, but a complete success as well!

Yay!

So, I also may have gotten a little crazy ingredient-wise...

This recipe made me two loaves of bread and 12 muffins.

Perfect to take to a friend! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 can Libby's pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

1) Mix Pumpkin, Sugars, Oil, Water, Vanilla, and Eggs until well combined. I used my Kitchen Aid and used the flat beater attachment but I'm sure a hand mixer would work just fine.

2) In a separate  bowl, combine Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg.  Stir together then gradually mix into the pumpkin mixture until all ingredients are combined. I used a half cup measurement to gradually add the flour mixture in. 

3) Spray bread pans with non stick spray, then coat with flour getting rid of excess flour after.

For the muffins I used cupcake liners but I'm sure non stick spray would work just fine. Then pour mixture evenly into pans. I filled each muffin about halfway. Once filled place in oven uncovered and bake 45-55 minutes for bread and 20-25 minutes for muffins.

4) Make streusel topping. Okay, making streusel can be reallyyy annoying. I know. But it's worth it!

Start by making cubes out of 1/2 cup un-softened butter.

Then add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and a pinch of salt.

5) With a fork press the sugar mixture into the butter until crumbles form. It takes a little while, so don't give up!

6) Once your bread has been baking for half the time, take it out and quickly put streusel on top. Same with the muffins. Then place it back in the oven uncovered for the remainder of the time. This will alleviate burnt streusel. 

7) Let sit for about 10 minutes, then serve while still warm! With a little bit of butter if you wanna do it my way :) 

Yum!

And now I'm off to finish my next Christmas craft....

;)

All my love,

Aleigh Joy

Freezer Meals: How To

Hi friends! So, many of you saw my instagram post yesterday about how I prepped 25 freezer meals in about 3 hours and for less than $90! I got a lot of feedback saying you'd like to know how I did it, so I listened. First of all, this has been something I've wanted to do for a loooong time but never fully got around to doing it, now after yesterday, I want to do this as often as possible.. I'm thinking every 3-4 months is a good goal. I have read tons of blogs and pinned all kinds of how to's for freezer meals, so what I did was just really a mix of everything I've learned, and picking up on what my family will actually eat, etc.

The 2 main reasons for doing this was 1) I'm going to have a new baby any day now, and really who has the time to cook for a family of 5 (!!) with a newborn? I'm sure I won't. For me, thats a hard pill to swallow because I love meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking, so I knew I needed a way to still provide yummy, healthy, homemade meals without completely losing my mind. 2) Recently Logan and I decided to pay for all our groceries with cash, and it's something I highly recommend! However, the last few weeks have been rough and for whatever reason I kept coming up short on a budget that I KNOW was plenty enough to feed us, and after yesterday, 25 meals for less than a $100?? That really made me proud.

Keep in mind, these meals are mostly "starters", as in, the day of cooking you'll need to make some noodles, rice, or potatoes, etc. It's just the meat of the meal is already done. Also, its no secret I love my crock pot, so aside from the chicken enchilada filling, spaghetti sauce, and cooked ground beef, all these recipes are prepared to go straight to your crock pot after defrosting for about 6 hours. So what were the meals? This is what I made:
(1) pork chops w/ caramelized apples and onion
(3)Hawaiian Chicken serve in tacos, or over rice
(2)Sweet and Sour Meatballs serve over rice or steamed veggies
(3)Marinara Meatballs serve over noodles, or in hoagie as meatball sub
(2)Spaghetti Sauce w/ ground beef, onion, peppers serve over pasta/use in lasagna
(1)Chili Starter add packet of chili seasoning and 1 can of hormel chili 
(1)Burrito Bowl serve over mexican rice
(2)Chicken Enchilada (filling only)
(1)White Chicken Chili
(1)Barbecue Chicken use for sandwiches or over mashed potatoes 
(1)Italian chicken with veggies
(1)Chicken Phillies serve in hoagies 
(5)3/4 lbs cooked ground beef with peppers and onions pull out as needed for tacos, spaghetti, sloppy  joes, etc. 

I didn't really follow any particular recipes, just ones that I'm used to making for my family. I have my shopping list for you though, and if you have any questions about any recipe just let me know and I'll be happy to share :)


Costco:
6 lb package fresh ground beef (around $20 at 3.49/lb)
1 bag boneless skinless chicken tenders ($16) normally I have my beloved zaycon foods chicken breast, but I don't get my order for about 6 more weeks so frozen costco chicken is the next best deal.
Turkey Meatballs ($12)
1 bag yellow onions
Frys:
2 lb package chicken breast
1 lb pkg pork chops
4-5 green bell peppers
2 bottles teriyaki sauce
large bag of carrots (italian chicken, and one bag of hawaiian chicken)
grape jelly (split between 2 bags of sweet and sour meatballs)
chili sauce (split between 2 bags of sweet and sour meatballs)
3 jars of spaghetti sauce (split between spaghetti sauce and marinara meatballs)
2 cans diced tomatoes (split between chili starter, white chicken chili, and burrito bowls)
1 packet italian dressing mix (italian chicken)
2 cans chunk pineapple (split equally between 3 bags hawaiian chicken)
3 cans of beans (pinto, black, and northern white) (white for white chicken chili, black for burrito bowls, pinto for chili starter)
1 large can green enchilada sauce (split between 2 bags enchilada filling)
1 container sour cream (split between 2 bags enchilada filling)
1 can sweet corn (1/2 white chicken chili, 1/2 burrito bowls)
1 carton chicken stock (for italian chicken, white chicken chili)
2 granny smith apples (for pork chops)

I can't say that I found excellent deals, and I don't really shop anywhere else than these 2 stores, so you could quite possibly find better deals and make the trip even cheaper.

I used gallon freezer bags for each meal, and labeled each one with the date, meal, and how to prep it before I filled each one. The easiest way I found was putting the bag in a medium sized bowl and filling it that way. I also had 2 large bowls, one filled with sliced onions, and one with sliced bell peppers since I put both of those in most of these meals. I also put the 2 lbs of chicken breast from frys in the crock pot in the morning with some all purpose seasoning and chicken broth to shred later for the chicken enchiladas and burrito bowls.

I also made 4 batches of pizza dough (2 pizzas per batch) and froze that for pizza nights, but I already had those ingredients on hand so I can't technically include that in the cost ;) I totally recommend doing this, it makes pizza night really low key and way faster, just pull out the dough the morning of and keep it in the fridge. Pull it out and let it rest for about 30 minutes before using :) 

• 1 teaspoon (scant) Active Dry Yeast
• 3/4 cups Warm Water
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour 
• 3/4 teaspoons Kosher Salt
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over 3/4 cups warm (not lukewarm) water. Let stand for a few minutes.

In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined, and the dough comes together in a sticky mass.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside for 1 to 2 hours, or store in the fridge/freezer until you need it.

I hope this helps you! It feels so good knowing I have all these meals tucked away. Enjoy!! 

xoxo, 

Michelle

Cilantro Lime Ranch

Dinner last night was superb.

In fact, I could probably eat it once a week, but I don't want to get sick of it. 

I love me a good salad, especially when the dressing is so good you wanna lick the bowl. 

Good thing I can do so in my own home! 

Hunter was a huge fan of this meal, even though he didn't seem too excited when I said salad was for dinner. Just salad. 

It's all about the dressing people. 

Ingredients:

1 tomatillo 

1/2 fresh Jalepeno (more or less depending on your spice tolerance) 

1 bunch of cilantro

1/2 lime 

About 1 1/2 cups already made ranch dressing

Directions:

Cut tomatillo into about six pieces and place in blender taking out middle. (Like you would a tomato) cut Jalepeno in half and toss that in your blender as well. Cut off cilantro stems and throw it in the blender. Add your ranch and squeeze your lime then blend until all is well mixed. Such a yummy taste! 

We made our salads cafe rio style cause the dressing is similar. If you don't know what cafe rio is... I'm sorry. But really look up the closest one and go get a sweet pork salad! On with it... I made chicken with fajita seasoning. We put the yummy tortilla land tortilla on the bottom of the bowl, next cheese, then black beans, rice (fajita flavor of the Lipton package. It's really good), chicken, lettuce, tomato, cilantro, guacamole, sour cream, tortilla strips, dressing, in that order. SO GOOD! This should probably be on your menu this coming week 👍 happy weekend! 

All my love, 

Aleigh Joy 

French Toast Rolls

Sorry us Moore gals have neglected the blog a bit. Between Tracy and I having our babies, Shell getting pregnant with her third, Alana moving from Northern California to southern and then to utah while her husband finishes podiatry school, aubrie raising sweet little Rylie pie, and all of us visiting California to witness the marriage between brother in law Brandon and our NEW sister in law Ashleigh, we've been a bit busy! 

No promises we'll keep up the way we see to but we'll try ;) 

I seem to have had quite the sweet tooth lately. 

Or I'm just getting lazy with dinners and making the same few things over and over.

 All my recent tried recipes have been sweets. 

But seriously this one is yummmmmmyyy. 

And dangerous.

So, if you're on a diet... Run. And fast. 

As always, I just eyeball things but I don't think there's a way you could mess this up.

Ingredients

4 tbsp. softened Salted butter

4 slices bread (if in Utah, use grandma sycamores) 

1 1/2ish tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbsp white sugar

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk

Directions:

Take crust off bread and use a rolling pin to flatten slices. In a small bowl mash 2 tbsp butter, sugars, and cinnamon together to form a paste. Spread evenly onto bread slices and roll up! Whisk egg, vanilla, and milk together. Dip rolls into egg mixture. Fry on a frying pan with remaining butter til crisp on the outside. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and put some syrup for dipping on the side! So bad, yet sooo good! ;)

All my love, 

Aleigh Joy 

Peanut Butter Mug Cake

Wanna know what I've been doing during Oaklyn's naps these past few days? Not dieting... Ha.

I've been testing out mug cake recipes!

The idea of mug cake was always so appealing to me. 

It's made in 5 minutes or less, a single serving, no oven, and WAY less mess to clean up! 

However, I was never able to find a mug cake that tasted good. 

They were all rubbery and bland. 

So, I set out to alter some that were close but just not quite great. 

The result: a mug cake I wish I didn't know about because I'll be eating it far too often because I LOVE it!

I love anything peanut butter... The only thing that would make it better is some chocolate but we didn't have any :(

Next time! 

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. all purpose flour

4 tbsp. white granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. baking powder

A pinch of salt

A dash of cinnamon

1 egg

4 tbsp. peanut butter

3 tbsp. milk

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

Whisk all ingredients together leaving out 1 tbsp. peanut butter. Keep whisking until very well combined and no lumps! Then take your last tbsp. of peanut butter and stick it in the middle. You'll be glad you did! :) microwave on high for 1 minute and 45 seconds. If you take it out and it doesn't seem done keep microwaving for 15 second intervals. DO NOT overcook it though. Then it's really yucky. Learned from experience! Also, I used a big measuring glass, if you're gonna use a regular sized mug split the recipe in half :) that's all! Super simple! :)

All my love, 

Aleigh Joy 

Grilled Chicken with Avocado Corn Salsa

Dinner tonight was so colorful, yummy, and perfectly summer. 

We even ate by the pool!

It also took hardly any effort which was the best part! 

I made this up based off cravings so you might have to use some imagination for the measurements. 

Ingredients: 

Chicken. However much or little.

Marinade for the chicken. Any one you please. We used Lawry's herb and garlic marinade. 

Salsa:

1 can of corn 

1 firm tomato 

1/4 ish cup onion

Handful cilantro

1 ripe (but not super mushy) avocado

1 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. olive oil 

Garlic salt 

Paprika

Pepper 

Directions:

Marinate your chicken for 5-6 hours. Or longer if you have the time and patience. Have your husband (or do it yourself) grill the chicken to your liking. Meanwhile make the salsa! Chop up tomato and onion into cubes and put in a mixing bowl. Add in about 3/4 the can of corn. Add in olive oil and lemon juice and coat. Next chop your cilantro and cube the avocado. Add this to the mixture. Now sprinkle your seasonings to your liking being careful not to mush the avocado while mixing. Once the chicken is done top it with the salsa and there ya have it! 

Hunter said it would also be really good wrapped in a tortilla! I agree! 

Happy summer everyone! 

All my love, 

Aleigh Joy